Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Scenes from TNNA

I've been back home from TNNA for two days, and already my memories of the weekend have taken on the candy-colored hyperreality of an especially lucid, potent dream. The things I'm remembering can't be true, can they?

I would say no, except the pile of stuff still waiting to be sorted indicates otherwise.

I have no photographs, as there were advance warnings that anyone snapping a camera on the show floor would be flogged with iron rods and dragged naked through the streets of Columbus. I had to resort to making little notes and sketches, which it is my pleasure to share with you now.

I wish I could have taken you all with me, but there was only one bed in my hotel room and I snore, so you would not have got much sleep.

I walked around the show for a little while with Stephanie. It took us two hours to move fifteen feet because some people recognized her and wanted to say hi.

Some of the vendors were wicked nice to me.

I kept meeting cool people and being geeky at them.

Really geeky.

There was terrific yarn everywhere! And I got some!

Abby Franquemont even gave me some yarn she spun herself. I loved watching her spin; she's so masterful the fiber and the spindle are like extensions of her hands. She has very graceful hands, like little white birds that dance together in the air.

I hated to leave but at some point you just have to go home or your head will explode. Thanks, everybody, for making the new boy feel so welcome. I can't wait until next time.

Listen to This

A couple of weeks ago I had a long, jolly chat with David Reidy (the sexiest male voice in knitting podcastery) and the interview is included the latest episode of Sticks and String. I've been listening to Sticks and String for a long time, so it was funny to tune in as usual and hear myself. The segment is so well-edited that I sound almost coherent.

David, it was great talking to you. Let's do it again, next time in Australia, preferably when it's February in Chicago.

Oh, the drawings are hilarious! My toddler ws looking at me weird because I was laughing so hard. LOLOLOLOLOL Better than photos, but the one Yarn Harlot put on her blog of you with her sock in your mouth is pretty funny, too. :D

Thanks for the link to sticks and string. Not your everyday astrophysicist is David! That's the way this internet thing goes - hear about someone who lives nearby from someone on the other side of the world.

I love this. I would have paid a million dollars (if I had it) to sit at that table - wow, all those stars sitting in one place. Your photo of the table should have shown the prostrate adoring fans littered all over the floor though.

This makes me want to open up a yarn store - not to make money or anything, but just so that I could go to TNNA.

I really enjoyed your interview on Stick and String (listened this morning on the way to work), and this post is just too funny--I really must stop reading these things at work--people look at you funny when they find you laughing alone in your office. Would love to be in Toronto this weekend--but alas it is not in the cards. Maybe you will come photograph the Boston knitters one day.

I'm so glad that cameras were verboten. The drawings were so much better--especially the commentary. Great interview on Sticks and String, by the way. You made me laugh out loud in the middle of the night in my bed. (Um, that's generally when I listen to podcasts.)

The pictures are so wonderful and fun and I agree - much more than photographs could be because they have so much YOU in them! It's like we got a sneak peak of what it would be like we got to walk around TNNA with you whispering in our ear :) I am in the middle of your interview on S&S and am enjoying it just as much! I have ot say - in a non-stalkerish wya - you're one of the things I miss about chicago!!

It's times like this that I know I am truly truly part of this group. The idea of meeting, say, Brad Pitt, is exciting in a distant kind of way. The idea of meeting teh Yarn Harlot has me hyperventilating at my keyboard. The idea of sitting at a table with Jess and Casey, two stephanies, Amy Singer, you... can't type, world swimming in front of eyes.

Hardly seems fair - you draw better STICK FIGURES than my digital photographs!! And yes, they are superior to photos, but I must be (I LOVE YOU) slightly prejudiced in your favor. You know, in a Jewish-Bubbeh-Looking-After-the-Nice-Boy kinda way. I'm writing, but not the kind of thing that would ever get me to TNNA - can I be your Duenna next time?

Really enjoy reading your blog, and got a big kick out of your interview with David Reidy. If you're ever coming to Northeast Ohio and want a place to sleep, we have a nice guest room on a 40-acre farm that's just waiting for you.

OMG! I was reading Knitspot yesterday when Anne posted this lovely picture of yourself, Ms. Singer, the Harlot, Cat Bhordi...and the view out the windows of the room ya'll were looked oddly familiar. I come over here today to find out that you were in my home town??!! At the (zany and funky colored) Convention Center??!!! and I didn't know??!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!I have to go lie down now with a cool cloth over my eyes! Well. Looks like a lot of fun was had by all...and this post is one of the best ones yet!! Glad you enjoyed yourself Franklin!

Loved meeting you, agree wholeheartedly about the zone of fun (and did you know there were those after the fashion show that were referring to us as the "dirty thirty"?), and thank you for the postcard you did for my daughter - she loved it!

If the saying "A picture says a thousand words" is true, your sketches say a million words. Thanks for sharing. Like all the other readers, the sketches made me feel like I was part of the hip and cool TNNA scene!

Next year I want to go to TNNA with you! My own experience was much quieter. I'm looking forward to meeting you though - next weekend at Lettuce Knit. I'll be one of the invading Americans coming for KIP day & the big 4-OH.

You have definitely arrived, you are one of the knitting world's celebrities, maybe even a god. I feel good that I can say I recognized something special was going on when I started reading your blog before you became famous. ;-) Love you!

it was fun to meet you too franklin; the cartoons are completely hilarious . . i like the afterthought review even better than being there in some ways (for starters, you noticed way more stuff than i did, and know way more people . . .)!

Franklin, dude, your recap and expert illustrations are the MOST!!! It only reinforces the fact that you will take over the cartoon world. I can't wait for your book... or your first New Yorker cartoon. It's inevitable.

OH, and sexiest podcast voice... you and David are a close tie. *rowr*

I enjoyed meeting you in class Saturday morning -- very down to earth! It was my first TNNA also (I was in front with the question about RURAL shops). Thanks for taking the time!MaureenGaylord ImagiKnit

I haven't been in the knitting scene very long, so I'm fortunate to be completely oblivious to all of the big-name knitters. I guess that helps, because you're more genuine if you have no clue whatsoever. Anyway, your visit to our booth stuck out to me because you wanted to shake my hand for being the Heather of Schaefer Yarns "Heather". :) I'm in shipping, and just wanted to let you know that if you haven't gotten your yarn yet, you should be soon! :) (and thanks for making my day at TNNA!)-Heather at Schaefer Yarn

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